Unusual exhibition:The Origin of the Faeces: Poo from the Zoo Ancient building: the stone foundations of former Kingston Bridge (1170) caveat: more a structure than a building, but very definitely ancient
Tracey Lee is a keeper at London Zoo and a compulsive collector of dung. She picked up her first piece when the Elephant House was emptied in 2001, and her second from a departing black rhino. She now has over 100 examples, each hygienically dried and preserved, and they're all on display for the first time underneath a department store in Kingston.
Let's start with the location, which is highly unusual in itself. When John Lewis was being built beside the Thames in the 1980s they discovered a medieval pub cellar and the foundations of the Saxon bridge, which delighted archaeologists and delayed completion for a number of years. Both were carefully relocated to a basement underneath the new store, and were sometimes open to the public before opening fulltime in July as a youth-focused arts space called Fusebox. You have to know it's there and be willing to walk in off the embankment, and even as you curl off down the staircase it all feels somewhat improbable. But at the foot of the staircase you enter a large squat concrete box with ample floorspace for a stage, a cafe and tables where Gen Z can flip open a laptop, amongst which are the footings of a 12th century bridge and a barrel-vaulted chalk and flint undercroft. Several red signs warn 'Please do not touch the ruins', otherwise it might be an ideal space to host some edgy animated urban mass gathering.
And around the walls at present is an array of annotated animal poo. It kicks off with the elephant and the black rhino, then launches into a categorised display including primates, marsupials, cetaceans, birds and insects. Moth poo is tiny, obviously, and bird poo mostly mucky splotches. But larger animals deliver larger payloads and in a variety of shapes which invite categorisation. Some animals like gorillas have dung that's long and tubular like a grilled kebab, while many others like giraffes plop small rounded nuggets resembling a pack of chocolate-coated raisins. Buffalos, being cattle, just do a large runny dollop. Children in your party may enjoy tackling the 'Whose poo? worksheet where they have to match the silhouette to reality, that is when they're not giggling at the excess of turd emojis displayed throughout. Being a big kid is entirely acceptable.
All in all a fascinating way to view the animal kingdom in an entirely new way, but fifteen minutes tops (unless you get into an animated conversation with Tracey in which case double that). Until 28th October, daily except Sundays, eleven til six, KT1 1TF.
Unusual exhibition:Christo | Early Works Ancient building: 4 Princelet Street, Spitalfields (1723) caveat: old for East London, but hardly ancient
The artist Christo (1935-2020) is best known for wrapping very large objects like islands or the Arc de Triomphe in brightly coloured plastic. But he had to start somewhere, and this small retrospective across four floors of a townhouse (curated by the Gagosian) brings together several of his formative works from the 1960s and 70s.
Let's start with the location, which is highly unusual in itself. 4 Princelet Street was originally the home of Sir Benjamin Truman, local brewery patriarch, and is a double-fronted house in what's now the Spitalfields Conservation Area. In the early 19th century it gained a rear extension where Huguenot silk weavers toiled and was later split into a house of multiple occupancy where Jewish and Bangladeshis refugees might have lived. A Grade II listing in 1969 saved it from developers, and what's brilliant here is that visitors to the exhibition get free rein to wander (almost) all over. Check out the copious wood panelling, spot the struts holding up part of the ceiling, admire various well-worn timber surfaces and climb the narrow staircase all the way to the two attic rooms. Only staff get to trot down into the cellar, but this tired-looking house would be worth an explore even if there weren't significant sculptural works dotted artfully around it.
Instead you can scrutinise a wrapped-up pushchair in the parlour, a wrapped-up package in the dining room, a wrapped-up pair of shoes by the landing, several wrapped-up bottles in the bathroom and a wrapped-up pile of magazines in the loft. A lot of it foreshadows the work he'd do later on a much bigger scale, and a lot of it is from the "I could have done that if I'd thought of it" school of art, except you didn't. It's not all pass the parcel, a few early swirly resin canvases are included, and it must be extremely valuable given the number of security staff located all around the building. It's also attracted a typically arty crowd, be they ladies more familiar with Chelsea galleries or bohemian youth with smartphones poised, but that's the Gagosian influence for you. They're planning another intervention with another artist somewhere else next year, to be announced, but I hope someone proofreads their laminated guide properly next time - number 13 is not 'Wapped Cans and a Bottle' and number 14 is not a 'Woden cabinet'.
All in all a fascinating way to use art as an excuse to explore a 300 year-old house, but twenty minutes tops (unless there's a queue outside at the weekend in which case prepare to wait). Until 22nd October, daily, ten til six, E1 6QH.
Unusual exhibition:The Princess Alice Disaster Exhibition Ancient building: Valence House, Dagenham (15th century+) caveat: not an especially unusual exhibition, but hopefully ancient enough
In 1878 the pleasure steamer Princess Alice sank in the Thames estuary just off what would later be the London borough of Barking and Dagenham, so their museum is putting on a small exhibition to remember the 600+ daytrippers who drowned in a seething sea of sewage. They have cheerier exhibits elsewhere.
Let's start with the location, which is highly unusual in itself. Most of the Becontree Estate is street after street of interwar council houses, tens of thousands of them, but here the planners left a gap in the grid for a medievalmanorhouse. It's known to have existed in the 13th century, gained its moat in the 14th, boasts one surviving fireplace from the 15th and the timbers you can see under the back staircase are 16th or 17th. Before the estate was completed it was used as the local town hall, and now sits between the library and the borough archives on the edge of Valence Park. It's been one of London's best borough museums since it was comprehensively refurbished in 2010, now with a shiny tearoom across the lawn which helps keep old and new separate. You might not think B&D has much of a history but the displays here totally prove that wrong.
This is by no means a large exhibition, more a few paintings, three artefacts and some informative posters. The art includes depictions of the Bywell Castle, the cargo ship which collided with the Princess Alice and was later (spoilers) mostly exonerated. The artefacts are a chunk of wood which might be from the wreckage, the newspaper report it was wrapped in and a flagon from a pub which might have taken its name from the disaster, so a pretty weak trio. But the posters are eye-opening, especially the eye-witness reports of ladies in sodden petticoats screaming as they failed to stay afloat amid excrement recently expelled from Abbey Mills and Crossness pumping stations. Nobody survived more than ten minutes in the water. You could perhaps get as good a grounding from reading the relevant Wikipedia article, but the fact our borough museums continue to create archival exhibitions on regular basis is deserving of our support.
All in all a fascinating way to revisit an often-overlooked calamity, but seven minutes tops (unless you've never visited the rest of the museum in which case allow an hour). Until 2nd December, Tuesday to Saturday (no longer Monday), ten til twelve and one til four (no longer lunchtime because that's budget cuts for you), RM8 3HT.
